INT. KITCHEN - COTTAGE - LATER
Lily packs a satchel as Victor eats and glances out a window.
VICTOR
Some traveling sideshow on the far side
of the river. Mind Maria better, hmm?
LILY
She’s an explorer like you.
Victor ignores the complement.
LILY
Where will you be?
VICTOR
Don’t know yet.
LILY
Would you consider staying? Not for me.
Victor shoots her a look. She doesn’t look at him.
VICTOR
Your asking me to stay is selfish. My
country needs me again. Finally.
LILY
Germany? They need you to tell them how
they lost the war? She needs you too.
Victor sees Maria outside gesturing and toasting to thin air.
VICTOR
Lily, PLEASE?! You’re not... Sister,
there’s a fault in the bedrock of our
nation. Maybe you know how deep it goes.
I do and I’m terrified. Since the war
people everywhere live in fear. Of who
might come or of who might come out.
Know your enemy, the papers tell us. I
wish we knew ourselves. If this fear
continues we could lose our rights, our
country, maybe our whole identity.
Lily weeps by her brother’s rare display of passion.
VICTOR
There’s only one hope of regaining our
national pride. The Mirror Project.
To be among Germany’s sharpest minds.
Collaborating for...for...
LILY
The security of a fractured nation?
VICTOR
Our nation. And someday hers. Who does
she talk to out there?
EXT. COTTAGE - CONTINUOUS
By herself Maria’s at high tea nodding to no one.
MARIA
Uncle says it’s colder when there’s no
snow. The river is frozen. I seen him
cross it. I’ll follow him, tell him.
Let him see you for real before he goes.
BACK TO SCENE
E/I. BUCHENWALD - BUILDING IV - DAY
A finger traces the lettering on the plaque. A figure goes
INSIDE
and hears VOICES. Follows the source upstairs. Stops on a
stair with a broken bannister spindle leaning against the
rail. Steps over it. Gets to the top of the stairs.
VICTOR (O.S.)
I can remember when I was a little boy...
An ear presses against a door to hear LAUGHING from inside.
VICTOR (O.S.)
Wunderbar! More tea?
The eavesdropper is Vaas. His face is beat up and bandaged.
He lifts a fist but doesn’t knock. Checks the doorknob to
see if the door is locked when it swings wide open on him.
Victor, standing in the doorway, glares at Vaas.
VAAS
No! Wait. I send your letters.
VICTOR
You should not be here.
VAAS
You think different after I tell you what
happened to me. Please, may I speak?
INT. VICTOR’S ROOM
Victor cleans tea cups off the only table.
VAAS
My name is Vaas. Who were having tea
with? I heard you talking to someone.
Victor stops dead in his tracks.
VICTOR
I was working. Why are you here? What
happened to your face, hmm?
VAAS
Funny. The answer to both questions is
the same. There was a little girl.
EXT. CARNIVAL CAMPGROUND - CONTINUOUS
On the outskirts of the campground Josef dumps urine from two
buckets. The macaque pops out of his overalls. Jumps down,
CHIRPS. Runs into the trees.
JOSEF
Find her, Himhim.
The macaque runs up to
INGRID
sitting in the dirt tearing strips of cloth from a black
velvet robe. She pets the macaque. Sees Josef.
INGRID
I told you. It’s never good for anyone
to touch me when I’m doing it. That’s
why I ran away. No more now. I mean it.
JOSEF
No more, I promise. Why do you follow us
when you can go anywhere you want to?
INGRID
I told you. I’m looking for a man.
JOSEF
To show him things? Am I going to be a
clown? Why won’t you show me?
INGRID
Josef, listen to me. It’s not a trick.
When you see me like that it’s not me.
I’m like a telephone wire for talking to
God. Do you understand?
JOSEF
You’re the Fatima girl then, right? What
does He say? He knows if I’ll ever be a
clown. Can’t you let Him show me?
INGRID
It’s wrong for anyone to see what He
shows them. They’re not supposed to
know. Josef, I have to go see the man
you brought to me the other night.
JOSEF
Because he touched you? He didn’t
believe. I made him believe.
INT. VICTOR’S ROOM - LATER
Vaas implores Victor to believe, but Victor’s not buying it.
VAAS
I’m telling you. I wouldn’t believe it
either, but I saw her. I saw...
Vaas punches his thigh trying to stay focused.
VICTOR
Herr Vaas, you’re not making sense. You
broke cover to tell me a girl who walks
backwards showed you things?
VAAS
You think this is funny? Let me ask you,
what would happen if the letters stopped?
From me to you to your mirror, and so on.
What would you do then?
VICTOR
Ist sedition! Security rests with us
fulfilling our duty. The letters have to
keep flowing.
VAAS
You don’t know. I’m telling you. I know
all the answers to all the questions a
mind could ever wonder to ask. Think.
VICTOR
I think, Herr Vaas, the strain has gotten
to you. I think I will write a letter
stating you be relieved, debriefed, and
then committed. You are not well.
VAAS
I’ll show you. The carnival is not far
from my post. I dare you. My post is--
VICTOR
DON’T tell me that. GET OUT!
VAAS
Five, zero, three Marbuffplatz,
Mauthausen. Five, zero, three--
Smirking Vaas taunts him repeating the address. Leaves.
Victor SLAMS his door. Tries to compose himself by cleaning.
VAAS (O.S.)
I heard you before. Trying to distract
yourself from what you don’t know. She
showed me! She can show you what the
devil knows about you! See for yourself.
VICTOR
Letters must keep flowing. Go away.
Silence. Victor sits. Starts a letter, but stops. He
writes: “503 MARBUFFPLATZ. MAUTHAUSEN.”
EXT. MAIN STREET - BUCHENWALD - NIGHT
The only person out Victor sneaks peeks at lighted windows.
MUMBLES responses to the conversation in his mind.
VICTOR
Don’t feel I...no. I have to know. You.
His mumbles turn into an inner diatribe. His body language
becomes a fit of shrugs and finger pointing. He gets to a
BEER HALL
whose lights and LAUGHTER contrast the desolation outside.
Victor contemplates entering. Startled, he pivots.
VICTOR
What do you want?
WERNER, nestled in an alcove across the street, watches.
WERNER
Just to talk, that’s all.
VICTOR
Oh. Well for just to talk you go in
there, hmm?
WERNER
You didn’t go in because you’re better
than them. You have an obligation. Men
with obligations can’t waste their time.
Looking past Werner, Victor notices children into mischief
down an alley. His attention is drawn to a girl among them.
WERNER
Like you I have no wife, no children. No
distractions from my obligation, not that
there is any in this miserable
Buchenwald. Men like us, we--
Werner turns to see what Victor is looking at.
WERNER
You there? Get away! Go before I...
As the Children bolt Victor shudders as if reliving a
terrible accident. Leaves Werner talking to himself.
WERNER
Herr Barchas? If I may say--
VICTOR
You have no choice but to say.
WERNER
You’re an important man. You don’t care
what others think. Me too, I’m OK with
that. But what I want to know is this.
How long before the acknowledgement?
VICTOR
The question then is how long, hmm?
Victor blots his forehead. Removes his glasses.
VICTOR
You think that loneliness merits
acknowledgement? That it is some great
virtue to be single-minded of duty? That
all the splendors of life and youth are
distractions from some nobler calling?
You absolute idiot.
With the focus and power of a tightly coiled snake Victor
spits his answer to the slack-jawed Werner.
VICTOR
How long? When that nobler calling
forgets you, and there is no one left to
talk to but only your single mind, and
the painful certainty of duty makes you
gasp as if you were being dragged under
by a thousand drowning men THEN, and only
then, can you ask how long.
Crushed, Werner shrinks away from Victor who calms. Victor
puts on his glasses and does a double take at
THE GIRL
from the side street standing under a street light staring
right at him. She turns and runs away.
All alone and frightened, Victor hurries into Building IV.
INT. VICTOR’S ROOM - LATER
Steam rises from the tea kettle on the table. The colored
string from the map is curled around the light cord.
Victor comes in wearing a newspaper hat. Unwraps two
beautiful demitasse. Pours tea into them and sits.
VICTOR
Happy birthday. Older we get the smaller
the cups they ask us to drink from, hmm?
Victor sips from his cup. Admires his meager surroundings.
VICTOR
Where’s the waiter? No bother. People
don’t understand half the pleasure of the
meal is the anticipation, hmm? More tea,
Maria? No. Open your gift then.
Victor looks around for what might substitute for the gift.
Opens an envelope by the window. Takes out the letter.
VICTOR
Oh, a beautiful cameo of you for the
occasion. Your grandmother had one done
of her, your mother of her, and now...
His concentration drifts. Slides the paper hat off his head.
Disassembles the rest of the charade.
VICTOR
What is happening? You were told, no
ordered. Orders give us purpose.
Purpose gives us clarity. Why didn’t you
do what you were told?
Victor puts on his overcoat. Grabs his bowler hat.
EXT. COTTAGE - NIGHT - FLASHBACK
Victor adjusts his hat. Smiles at a toppled tea cup on the
old table.
VICTOR
Maria? Commun here.
Maria runs around the corner. Her face is flush.
VICTOR
What were you doing over there?
MARIA
Just nothing, uncle.
VICTOR
Nothing? Like leaving your best china
outside for anyone to come and take.
MARIA
Are you finally having tea with me?!
He offers his cane to her; she grabs it. They walk along the
BANKS OF THE FROZEN RIVER
past the compound of striped tents on the other side.
MARIA
We’re not crossing here?
Maria’s hand climbs over Victor’s.
VICTOR
(pushes her hand away)
Don’t...know for sure the river’s frozen.
Let down, Maria sees the tents and clumsily walks backwards.
VICTOR
Why are you walking like that, hmm?
Face partially painted like a clown, Josef watches Victor
following Maria walking backwards from the far bank of the
river. He scrubs off the make-up and runs toward the tents.
VICTOR (O.S.)
I’m leaving again. Maria, keep away from
people you don’t know. Understand?
AT A SMALL WOOD BRIDGE
MARIA
But uncle I have something to tell you.
VICTOR
Tell your mother what I told you instead.
And this. Stay with her. She needs you.
She’d go crazy without you to love.
MARIA
But Uncle Victor, she’s just across--
VICTOR
NO she is NOT. She’s at the house.
Maria gives up trying to be heard. Just stands there.
VICTOR
So anxious of the lady you will become.
MARIA
But I can know what I’ll become. My tea
parties, I made a friend. She can--
VICTOR
Maria! I know you want me to play tea
with you, but I am too old for that, hmm?
Maria endures a pat on the head. Watches Victor disappear
over the bridge. Looks at the tents. Step onto the ice.
BACK TO SCENE
EXT. 503 MARBUFFPLATZ - MAUTHAUSEN - NIGHT
Ingrid stares at the address. Looks through a window.
E/I. 503 MARBUFFPLATZ - MAUTHAUSEN - DAY
Victor pushes through a crowd around the front door. He
glances over a shoulder to see
A BLOOD TRAIL
in the foyer. Victor falls through the crowd into the foyer.
This gets the attention of OFFICER KATZ. In his 30’s, he’s
tall, handsome, and has an air of privilege about him.
Circles up to Victor.
OFFICER KATZ
I never saw you before. Who are you?
VICTOR
Just no one. What happened here?
ON INGRID. In the crowd, she stifles a yawn hearing Victor.
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